Bereishit Rabba 19:7
וַיִּשְׁמְעוּ אֶת קוֹל יקוק אֱלֹקִים מִתְהַלֵּךְ בַּגָּן לְרוּחַ הַיּוֹם (בראשית ג, ח)...עִקַּר שְׁכִינָה בַּתַּחְתּוֹנִים הָיְתָה, כֵּיוָן שֶׁחָטָא אָדָם הָרִאשׁוֹן נִסְתַּלְּקָה שְׁכִינָה לָרָקִיעַ הָרִאשׁוֹן, חָטָא קַיִן נִסְתַּלְּקָה לָרָקִיעַ הַשֵּׁנִי, דּוֹר אֱנוֹשׁ לַשְׁלִישִׁי, דּוֹר הַמַּבּוּל לָרְבִיעִי, דּוֹר הַפְלָגָה לַחֲמִישִׁי, סְדוֹמִיִּים לַשִּׁשִּׁי, וּמִצְרִיִּים בִּימֵי אַבְרָהָם לַשְּׁבִיעִי. וּכְנֶגְדָן עָמְדוּ שִׁבְעָה צַדִּיקִים, וְאֵלּוּ הֵן, אַבְרָהָם יִצְחָק וְיַעֲקֹב לֵוִי קְהָת עַמְרָם משֶׁה, עָמַד אַבְרָהָם וְהוֹרִידָהּ לַשִּׁשִּׁי, עָמַד יִצְחָק וְהוֹרִידָהּ מִן שִׁשִּׁי לַחֲמִישִׁי, עָמַד יַעֲקֹב וְהוֹרִידָהּ מִן הַחֲמִישִׁי לָרְבִיעִי, עָמַד לֵוִי וְהוֹרִידָהּ מִן הָרְבִיעִי לַשְּׁלִישִׁי, עָמַד קְהָת וְהוֹרִידָהּ מִן הַשְּׁלִישִׁי לַשֵּׁנִי, עָמַד עַמְרָם וְהוֹרִידָהּ מִן הַשֵּׁנִי לָרִאשׁוֹן, עָמַד משֶׁה וְהוֹרִידָהּ מִלְּמַעְלָה לְמַטָּה.
R. Abba b. Kahana said : Not mehallek but mith-halleB is written here, 4 which means that it [repeatedly] leaped and ascended. The real home of the Shechinah was in the nether sphere; when Adam sinned it departed to the first rakia! [firmament] ; when Cain sinned, it ascended to the second rakia' ; when the generation of Enosh sinned, it ascended to the third ; when the generation of the Flood sinned, to the fourth; with the generation of the separation [of tongues], to the fifth; with the Sodomites, to the sixth, with the Egyptians in the days of Abraham, to the seventh. But as against these there arose seven righteous men : Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Levi, Kohath, Amram, and Moses, and they brought it down again to earth. Abraham [brought it down] from the seventh to the sixth, Isaac from the sixth to the fifth, Jacob from the fifth to the fourth, Levi from the fourth to the third, Kohath from the third to the second, Amram from the second to the first, while Moses brought it right down below. R. Abba b. Kahana said : Not mehallek but mith-halleB is written here, 4 which means that it [repeatedly] leaped and ascended. The real home of the Shechinah was in the nether sphere; when Adam sinned it departed to the first rakia! [firmament] ; when Cain sinned, it ascended to the second rakia' ; when the generation of Enosh sinned, it ascended to the third ; when the generation of the Flood sinned, to the fourth; with the generation of the separation [of tongues], to the fifth; with the Sodomites, to the sixth, with the Egyptians in the days of Abraham, to the seventh. But as against these there arose seven righteous men : Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Levi, Kohath, Amram, and Moses, and they brought it down again to earth. Abraham [brought it down] from the seventh to the sixth, Isaac from the sixth to the fifth, Jacob from the fifth to the fourth, Levi from the fourth to the third, Kohath from the third to the second, Amram from the second to the first, while Moses brought it right down below. R. Isaac said: It is written, The righteous shall inherit the land and dwell (wayyishkenu) therein for ever (Ps. xxxvii, 29) : then what are the wicked to do — are they to range in the air! What it means is that the wicked did not permit the Shechinah to dwell on earth..
Neil Gillman, Sacred Fragments (p. 206)
Buber's answer to the question "Where was God?" is to speak of an "eclipse of God," an image that evokes the familiar biblical "hiding of His face." In the Bible itself, God's hiding of His face is most frequently a form of retribution-but not always. Sometimes--Psalm 13 is an excellent example--it represents a mysterious ebb in the divine-human relationship that the human being simply can not fathom but experiences as palpably real and terrifying. For Buber, the "eclipse" represents an inherent stage in the dynamic of the I-Thou/I-It relationships. All relationships know both their moments of intimacy as well as their moments of withdrawal. I-Thou becomes I-It, which eventually can become I-Thou again. Only the partners in the relationship can testify to the presence or the absence of their partner, and only in the moment of each experience.
Rabbi A.J. Heschel, Man Is Not Alone (p. 151-153)
Does not history look like a stage for the dance of might and evil-with man’s wits too feeble to separate the two-and God either directing the play or indifferent to it? The major folly of this view seems to lie in its shifting the responsibility for man’s plight from man to God, in accussing the Invisible though iniquity is ours...We live in an age when most of us have ceased to be shocked by the increase in moral inhibitions. The decay of conscience fills the air with a pungent smell. Good and evil, which were once as distinguishable as day and night, have become a blurred mist. But that mist is man-made. God is not silent. He has been silenced...The will of God is to be here, manifest and near; but when the doors of this world are slammed on Him, His truth betrayed, His will defied, He withdraws, leaving man to himself. God did not depart of His own volition; He was expelled. God is in exile.
Rabbi William Plevan, Jewish Theology in Our Time (p. 96)
The divine name [I will be what I will be] does not denote remoteness or eternality, but continued presence. "God will be" means, God will be with God's creatures in all times and places. As one Chasidic saying Buber was fond of goes: "Where is God? Wherever you let God in." God's promise to Moses, as to our ancestors before and to every Jew since, is that God is available to us when we cry out, in all our pain and degradation, and that God will be with us as we fight for justice, show loving-kindness to others, and move toward the light of redemption.